THE LEGUMES. 87 



corn and other grains and found most profitable in supplement- 

 ing other feeds. It is well adapted to various uses. It is used 

 as lorage, soiling, ensilage, hay, meal, green manuring, cover 

 cropping, and is eaten by cattle, sheep, horses, hogs and poultry. 



As a profitable crop the value of alfalfa is based on its feed- 

 ing and fertilizing values. It is almost as rich in composition, as 

 some of the concentrates, when used as hay. One acre of a-falfa 

 is often worth as much as six acres or more of our other grasses. 



The alfalfa grower's decalogue is: 



1. Make a start and keep it. 



2. Get ground reasonably free from weeds by summer fallowing. 



3. Make a firm solid seed bed by summer fallowing. 



4. Don't throw seed away by seeding on poor ground. Manure it- 



5. Don't put alfalfa in sour, wet soil. 



6. Always cut on time when sprouts at base are starting. 



7. Plant 10 pounds to the acre. 



8. Get good seed and have it tested. 



9. Find out from your experiment station when it is the best time 



to plant. 

 10. Make but three cuttings a year. 



Before starting to raise alfalfa be sure that you understand 

 the subject thoroughly. Send for some of the literature named 

 in the list given at the end of this chapter. 



Getting Alfalfa Started. ' 



Two or three pounds of alfalfa sown with clover and tim- 

 othy on the rich well drained lands of the corn belt will serve 

 to innoculate the soil and finally faciliate the exclusive culture 

 of alfalfa as a legume for rotation with corn. 



For a stand of alfalfa alone, various experiments have dem- 

 onstrated that it is not advisable to sow less than six pounds nor 

 more than fifteen pounds of seed per acre. Ten pounds of alfalfa 

 per acre means if properly distributed on an average sixty seeds 

 per square foot, and if these should all grow there would be from 

 five to six times as many plants as necessary. In some of the 

 best alfalfa lands of the United States a single plant may take 



